Dispatcher in fatal shooting sorry for error

A veteran dispatch operator apologized Monday on the first day of a coroner’s inquest into the death of a 20-year-old man shot by Victoria police almost three years ago.

The court heard a recording of a call in which Marney Mutch told the operator that her son Rhett Mutch was holding a knife against his stomach. She also said her son was not going to hurt her.

The dispatch sent to all police in the area said only that Rhett had a knife to his throat and that his mother was in the home.

“I have to apologize. … In my transcribing that I put it in as throat,” said Darryl Lillew, an operator at the Victoria dispatch centre who answered the 911 call the morning of Nov. 1, 2014.

Marney Mutch had called police because her son broke into her Dallas Road home after she had told him not to go there and against a no-contact order.

The miscommunication was the first of several presented at the inquest, being held this week at the provincial courthouse on Burdett Avenue.

Lillew noted that the presence of any weapon escalates a police response, regardless of where it is placed.

Over five days, presiding coroner Donita Kuzma and seven jurors will hear from everyone present the day Rhett was killed, as well as use-of-force experts and a pathologist, social worker and psychiatrist.

Kuzma said the purpose of the inquest is to determine how the death occurred and to make recommendations to prevent similar incidents.

Coroner’s inquests often occur for deaths involving police.

The Mutch inquest follows a 19month investigation by the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. completed last year. The civilian-led office investigates incidents of serious harm and death involving police and forwards any criminal findings to the Crown.

The IIO report cleared Victoria police of any wrongdoing in the Mutch case, but did note serious concerns regarding communication breakdowns the day of the shooting.

Other examples included dispatch officer Alden Lenz, a trainee at the time, relaying to officers that there was a knife to the victim’s throat — though it was not clear who he was referring to as the victim.

The inquest also heard from Sgt. Gregory Holmes, the supervising officer and a crisis-intervention and de-escalation instructor. He was on a coffee break when he heard the dispatch about a break-in at the Mutch home. Holmes told the court that when he heard there was a no-contact order, he got in his vehicle to go to the scene and instructed the first officers there to enter the home.

When he heard there was a knife, he broadcast: “Let’s probe. Use cover and use dialogue.”

Holmes told the court: “Even though he turned the knife on himself, I was very concerned for [Marnie] Mutch’s safety.”

As he drove to the home, he planned how he might intervene as a negotiator. Holmes was not told when Marney was escorted out of the home. “Things were happening very fast,” he said.

He saw her with another officer outside as he walked up to the house. That’s when he heard two loud bangs. “I knew something really bad happened inside the residence,” Holmes said, choking up as he described the traumatized look on the face of the officer who had shot and killed Rhett, as the officer walked out of the home.

“I will live with that vision, knowing that I sent him in there to do that,” said Holmes. He said he later learned Rhett was hit with a non-lethal bean-bag gun before being shot in the neck.

Holmes said because there was a threat to life, the officers had to intervene. Doing so armed was for their protection, but did not preclude them from using crisis-intervention training.

The inquest continues today with testimony from the police officers at the shooting scene.